Lifestyle Medicine

Dramatically improving people’s lives.

A sedentary lifestyle is one of the top risk factors for heart disease. Fortunately, it’s a risk factor that you can do something about. Dr. Steve Feyrer-Melk’s expertise in Exercise Science and Wellness places him in a position to expertly evaluate patients and develop lifestyle plans to improve heart health and quality of life. He is one of only a few Ph.D.s in the country to practice in this highly specialized field.

Being in a safe and nonjudgmental environment is essential. Dr. Steve puts you at-ease while developing a personalized Wellness Report that empowers you with information that is practical, accurate, and understandable.

Your Wellness Report

Your Wellness Report

Being in a safe and nonjudgmental environment is essential. Dr. Steve puts you at-ease while developing a personalized Wellness Report that empowers you with information that is practical, accurate, and understandable. Using the latest technology to scientifically provide a global look at your current fitness status, the Wellness Report allows Optimal Heart Attack & Stroke Prevention Center to make informed decisions about maintaining and improving your quality of life.

Body Composition

This assessment will help you maintain or gain muscular strength, maintain or lose body fat, and allows Dr. Steve to monitor your progress. Utilizing the GE Inbody 230, we discover useful information about your muscle and body fat.

Cardiovascular Fitness

Using state-of-the-art technology, we are able to learn how your heart, lungs, and blood vessels function during physical activity. Our brief, safe tests provide an estimated VO2 maximum score (oxygen consumption). Armed with this information, Dr. Steve can help you maintain or improve your ability to utilize oxygen and therefore, your quality of life.

Muscular Strength and Endurance

Functioning optimally is highly dependent upon our ability to move our limbs effectively. Using force plate technology and grip strength dynamometry, Dr. Steve will assess your level of muscular strength and endurance. Patients from 30 to 90 years of age have performed these movements in the comfort and security of our office.

Flexibility

Body flexibility is very closely tied to quality of life. Dr. Steve is able to provide an overview of your current flexibility fitness level, and with the results, will assist you in maintaining or improving your flexibility.

Agility and Balance

Confidently moving within your environment is a goal throughout one’s life. By assessing dynamic balance and agility, you’ll gain information that reveals your level of fitness, and that will inform Dr. Steve on developing activity programs that are best tailored to your lifestyle.

Health and Lifestyle Assessment

This assessment is based on years of noted research and development that have led professionals to obtain wellness information from their patients. The questionnaire includes four targets: physical fitness, nutrition, stress and mental health, and readiness for change.

FitBit

Fitbit is a small, discrete device that tracks your everyday steps, stairs climbed, calories burned, and motivates you throughout the day. Whether online or on your iPhone, you can track your progress, log food, weight, workouts and more. This real-time information helps Optimal Heart Attack & Stroke Prevention Center track your daily activity and guide your fitness program. If you are already part of an exercise program or working with a trainer, Dr. Steve can incorporate program ideas for in-home, exercise facility or club setting workouts, cardiac rehabilitation settings, and physical therapy practices.

Weight Management

Weight Management

Every day is an opportunity

Dr. Anne-Marie Feyrer-Melk cites the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that reports that every 25 seconds someone experiences an episode of cardiac arrest, and about 1 person will die from a coronary event every minute. These are striking statistics that should be “taken to heart” as part of your commitment to making changes that will lead to healthy results.

Take Shape For Life is leading a health revolution in America – and you can become part of it right now. This program is a whole new approach to heart health based on creating good health with 3 unique components: Your Health Coach, the Medifast 5 & 1 Plan, and the Habits of Health. These building blocks create the foundation and long-term support that guides you along your journey.

You’ll start by losing up to 2 to 5 lbs per week, quickly and safely.

You’ll learn Habits of Health that can create good health for a lifetime.

You’ll become a part of a thriving Bio-Network of Clients with your personal Health Coach.

Dr. Steve Feyrer-Melk is your personal Health Coach, who will guide you as you lose weight on the Medifast 5 & 1 Plan®, by using the clinically proven, doctor-recommended, portion-controlled nutrition of Medifast Meals. Along the way, Dr. Steve will help you to make choices that will allow you take charge of your health for the long term.

Nutrition

Nutrition

Optimal Heart Attack & Stroke Prevention Center is proud to have an on-staff nutritionist to help guide your balanced and heart healthy diet. Dr. Donna Demarco has a Ph.D. in holistic nutrition from Clayton College of Natural Health, and is an adjunct professor with the Maricopa Community College system.

Weight control and regular exercise are critical for keeping your heart in shape, but the food you eat may matter just as much. Studies show that eating a heart healthy diet can reduce your risk of heart disease or stroke by 80%. With heart disease still the number one killer of both men and women in the US, this is important, and heartening, news.

By understanding how your food choices impact the health of your heart, you may be able to prevent or manage heart disease and high blood pressure. Dr. Donna will help you learn which foods and methods of cooking are healthiest for your heart, and you can take greater control over the quality and length of your life.